


Ready for Those Flashing Lights

by Little_Ditty



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, Fake Dating, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-03-08 10:51:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 14,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13456683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Ditty/pseuds/Little_Ditty
Summary: Child star Karolina Dean takes her best friend Nico Minoru to the Teen Choice Awards. Paparazzi take photos and suddenly ‘Deanoru’ is trending on Twitter. Fake-dating AU meets no powers meets Leslie Dean!Momager.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a weird little thing that popped into my head. Trying out Anonymous posting before really jumping into the fandom. I typed this out quickly and didn't proof it, so sorry in advance.

For the longest time Nico doesn’t really get it. Sure, she knows Karolina is famous. But nearly every kid at Atlas Academy was ‘special.’ The student body included Olympic hopefuls, children of foreign politicians, a few kids with tech giants for parents, and a few families that were just obscenely rich.

And it was hard to reconcile an A-list star with your best friend. Both Nico and Karolina’s parents were part of a charity group called PRIDE. And they, along with the kids of some other members, had basically grown up together.

So when it came time for the Teen Choice Awards, of course Nico was going to go hang out and score a swag bag. They’d done things like this multiple times before with their other friends. The PRIDE members loved to trot out their kids at all sorts of functions and charities.

But this time Gert was protesting because of her new cause, that Nico couldn’t remember, and had rooked Molly into it as well. Chase was in Connecticut playing in a lacrosse championship. Amy had gone off to college a few years ago and was hardly ever around. And Alex didn’t like the lime light and had firmly declined to attend.

So what, Nico and Karolina would have more fun by themselves. And they did. Laughing and making faces at cameras which were always trained at Karolina. Nearly tripping over their dresses and clutching each other’s arms for balance. Giggling and whispering comments during the actual awards show.

It was probably the most fun they’d had in ages. And that didn’t even include the after party. Nico didn’t really remember the after party, but she knew it had been good because she woke up face down on the sofa in Karolina’s bedroom the next morning.

At least, it seemed like morning. The sun was blazing through the windows and Nico could feel her phone vibrating beneath her. She performed a few contortions and managed not to fall off the couch before curtly answering her phone, “Yeah?”

The tone and speed at which Gert spoke would have been headache inducing without a slight hangover pounding at Nico’s temples. But she managed to catch a few words ‘awards’ ‘Karolina’ ‘ohmygod’ being just a few.

“Gert!” Nico croaked, rolling onto her back and draping one arm over her eyes. “You have got to talk slower or maybe just breathe between words. I can’t understand you.”

A deep inhale sounded across the connection before Gert continued, somewhat more slowly. “You and Karolina!” Gert half-shrieked into the phone.

“What about me and Karolina?” Nico asked with a long suffering sigh. Talking to Gert sometimes took a lot of patience and brainpower, both of which Nico was short on right now.

“Haven’t you checked Twitter? Or just about any news source?” 

“No, I just woke up,” said Nico, pulling herself off the couch and stumbling towards Karolina’s bed. Which was surprisingly lacking her blonde friend’s presence.

“Nico! It is almost noon!” Gert admonished.

Sensing a new rant, Nico headed Gert off quickly. “You can lecture me about one topic at a time Gert, same rules as always.”

Gert huffed into the phone line but complied with their age old rule. “Why didn’t you tell me you and Karolina? I told you so many embarrassing things about liking Chase! I had to find out on Twitter of all places! To be fair, it is a well written article. But #Deanoru is trending on Twitter.”

Gert’s words went in one ear and out the other because at that same moment Karolina stepped out of her ensuite bathroom in nothing but a towel and a rush of steam. “I gotta go, talk later,” Nico said briefly before hanging up the phone.

Karolina must have read something on Nico’s face because the next second they were both sitting on the edge of the bed, bare knees touching and Nico’s hand between both of Karolina’s. “What’s up Nico?” Karolina asked, giving Nico’s hand a brief squeeze.

Before Nico could utter a word, the bedroom door swung open and in the doorway stood Leslie Dean.

Leslie’s gray eyes took in the scene and Nico realized how it must look. Karolina in a towel and nothing else, while Nico surely looked rumpled. Before she could say a word, Leslie seemed to stalk into the room. 

“Karolina, we need to discuss what happened last night.” The tone was all manager and no mother. And Nico couldn’t help but gulp. This couldn’t be good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A second chapter is in the works. I'm thinking from Karolina's POV. Probably detailing the awards a little more.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it seems this is a popularish idea, which honestly surprised me because it was a dumb little idea that came to me when I was showering. But you guys seem to like it and who am I to withhold?
> 
> I’m still doing a bit of exposition dump but that’s my style. Sorry not sorry.
> 
> And I’m going to level with you guys, I haven’t written an actual fic in years. So I’m both happy and surprised people are enjoying this.

Karolina Dean was a pro when it came to photographers and writers and even paparazzi. Interactions with the press were easier than breathing and the press loved her for that. Of course, it helped to be pretty and blonde.

She had been on tv since she was in diapers. Literally, her first brush with stardom was in a diaper commercial. And it had continued since then.

A few small movie parts and a quick stint as Cosette on Broadway had led to a small arc on a soap opera when she was 11. Karolina had enjoyed that, especially because it allowed her to act in the same show as her dad. But they were small things that never really interfered with growing up normally. Or as normal as possible with an actor for a dad and an heiress for a mom.

Karolina wouldn’t really have been terribly interesting to the paparazzi, besides having a famous dad, if it hadn’t been for Flying Colors. Initially she hadn’t been a big fan of the idea. A show based on a high school girl who was struggling through high school and hiding the fact that her skin emitted a glowing multi-colored aura? But apparently it resonated really well with kids.

That had been followed by a huge increase in fame. All sorts of movies and tv show wanted her, to say nothing of the talk shows and magazines. So it was nice to still be treated like a normal person by her friends.

Especially because her friends weren’t exactly nobodies, or at least their parents weren’t nobodies. Chase’s dad had invented tons of things. Alex’s mom was a crazy good lawyer and his dad was big into real estate. The Minorus created and ran Wizard; everyone had a Wizard phone! And the Yorkeses. Well Karolina never really understood what they did, but it was way beyond what high school science taught.

And it didn’t bother Karolina that not all of her friends could come to the award show tonight. Besides, it wasn’t like she was up for an award, just presenting. And anyway Nico would be there; her not-so-secret best friend.

“Are you ready?” Karolina asked as the limo pulled up in front of the theater, checking her dress and makeup quickly.

Initially Nico had said she didn’t want to go if no one else was going. But all Karolina had to do was pop a lower lip pout and her best friend had caved.

“Fine, let’s do this,” Nico said with an exaggerated eye roll, she had to retain her cool and detached persona.

Karolina grabbed Nico’s hand and tugged her out of the limo into the flashing lights. Almost immediately the were bombarded with shouts of “Karolina! Smile!” and “Karolina over here!”

Karolina thought she heard a couple shouts of Nico’s name too, but what caught her attention was a high, young voice shouting “It’s Ginny Gardner!” and she quickly turned to the little girl who was excited to see her favorite tv character.

Dragging Nico along with, Karolina came to the barrier to meet a fan. She spent enough time talking to fan and signing autographs that they had to be ushered in because the show was almost ready to start.

The night was fun: singing along with some of the musical acts, clapping for stars they liked. Even when Karolina nearly broke into a fit of laughter during the acceptance speech of the award she’d presented; Nico had been making faces at her from their seats.

The after party was fun too, even if Karolina didn’t usually like them. Everyone always seemed to want something from her or wanted to ply her with drinks. She always listened to pitches politely and declined drinks the same way. Too many Leslie Dean lectures about what underage drinking could do to her image and her career.

Nico, however, didn’t decline any drinks sent her way. Karolina kept an eye on Nico, deciding around 1 am that it was time to go. Half supporting, half dragging Karolina was able to get the both of them into the car and heading back to her house.

The two were able to make it to Karolina’s room, but Nico refused to budge from the couch. Karolina didn’t want to argue and left Nico to her own devices on the couch

***

In the morning Karolina didn’t bother to try waking Nico, her friend was very much not a morning person. So she just went about her normal routine, ignoring the sleeping girl on her couch.

After breakfast, the guided meditation/pilates her mom created, and a shower, Karolina was actually surprised to see Nico awake. Albeit more surprised that her friend looked like a deer in the headlights.

Wrapping her towel tighter, Karolina walked over and sat on the bed. “What’s up Nico?” she asked, giving her friend’s hand a squeeze. Before Karolina got an answer her mom walked in.

No, stalked in. Like she was on a warpath. Whatever came next couldn’t be good. “Karolina, we need to discuss what happened last night.”

“Sure mom, what is it?” Karolina asked, feeling nervous but not sure why.

“Well, first of all,” Leslie started, moving to lean against the vanity table near the bed, “I thought we had a good relationship. Where you told me things. Not just because I’m your manager and care about your career. But also because I’m your mother and I love you.”

Karolina blinked, still not sure what was happening. “Mom I -”

The finger came up, stopping Karolina’s words before they could even start. The finger meant ‘Leslie Dean is talking now’ and interrupting was never good.

There were rumors of a tv producer who’d interrupted her mother about ten years ago. They said he moved to San Francisco and started diving with sharks, because they were less blood thirsty. That probably wasn’t true. Karolina thought she had seen him working at Timely Coffee, and the tremors were probably from too much caffeine. Probably.

“I know we discussed your sexuality and talked about keeping it quiet because of Flying Colors’ ridiculous morality clause. But I thought you knew you could come to your father and I. We would have liked to know you had a new girlfriend.” Karolina must have made a sound of protest, because her mother leveled a glare her way and the finger began to shake just a little.

With a long suffering sigh her mother continued. “And not just because you know that we both love Nico.” This time it was Nico who made a distressed sound, luckily one that went unnoticed. “But we wanted to get out in front of it, spin it our way instead of it being all over social media.”

Karolina felt her brain grind to a halt. Nothing that her mother was saying was connecting. But she still kept talking.

“It didn’t help that your friend Gert has been defending you on Twitter until her face was as blue as her hair. Or is it purple now? Not the point.” Now fully in manager mode, Karolina watched her mom pace the length of the room, consulting her tablet. “Luckily we can still get it under control, Ellen made space in her schedule for an interview on Tuesday.”

“Ellen?” Karolina choked out, feeling light headed.

“Of course, you always get along so well with her. And she can’t be making snide barbs about your sexuality.” Her mom’s phone chirped and Karolina felt a reprieve coming. “Now, I’ve got to take this call, but it’s taken care of sweetie.”

Just before her mom left, she turned for one last directive. “And girls, the door stays open when you’re alone in the bedroom.”

Had a bomb just gone off? That would explain the ringing in her ears, but as far as Karolina could tell the room looked normal.

“Oh god.” Nico was the one to finally break the silence. She was looking at her phone and shaking her head in shock. “#Deanoru is has over two hundred thousand tweets!”

“What? What is Deanoru?” Karolina managed to ask, still feeling insanely confused.

“Us.” Nico answered with no further explanation.

“Us?” she asked dumbly.

“There are tons of pictures of us holding hands, sitting close last night, and it looks like you almost carried me to the car last night?” Nico half laughed.

That made Karolina’s focus snap into place. “We’re not dating!” she whispered hotly, aware of the wide open door that reinforced that this wasn’t just a crazy dream.

“I’m going to ignore the tone, because this is bizarre, but according to the internet, we are dating.” Nico turned her phone for Karolina to see. On it was a really nice picture of them from the awards show. From the angle it looked like Karolina was laughing as Nico pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“What do we do?” Karolina groaned, flopping back onto her bed, flinging one arm over her eyes.

“Well,” Nico drew out the word longer than necessary, almost wrecking Karolina’s frazzled nerves. “We date.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I know, bad place to end it. But, I promise I am working on the third chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are so nice with your comments! I’m blushing!
> 
> I think I’m keeping with Karolina POV, she just clicks for me.

“We can’t date!” Karolina said with a huff, getting off her bed and pacing the room.

“Well,” Nico drawled, not looking up from her very intense study of the Deanoru hashtag, “You’re off to a good start, parading around in front of me in just a towel!”

With a frustrated groan Karolina grabbed the first clothes available and retreated to the bathroom. She even slammed the door shut for emphasis.

It made her feel a bit better, until Nico’s chuckle sounded through the door. Then a blush crept up Karolina’s neck.  She dressed with quick, agitated movements but didn’t feel any calmer.

Why was she acting like this? She hadn’t freaked out so much when the media linked her with Chase when they were in high school. She’d laughed it off like the joke it was. Sighing again, Karolina slumped into her vanity chair and grumbled at her reflection. Unfortunately her reflection offered back no response.

“We can’t date!” Karolina said again, coming out of the bathroom with none of the peace she’d wanted.

“Why not?” asked Nico from her new place in front of the mirror. “Give me a good reason.” She had obviously helped herself to the darkest clothes she could find in Karolina’s closet. The gray plaid shirt wasn’t exactly Nico’s normal style but Karolina thought it looked good.

“Because you don’t even like me like that!” Karolina had to bite her tongue and add a pathetic ‘do you?’ onto the statement.

“No, but why does that matter?”

Karolina felt the bottom drop out of her stomach but pushed that away. “Because you’re supposed to like the person you’re dating!”

Nico smirked at Karolina. “I don’t like anyone I’ve ever dated. And we aren’t dating, as you keep telling me.”

“You know what I mean!” Karolina said, stomping her foot.

“I know. But we pretend to be a couple for a few months and then break up,” Nico told her like she was explaining it to a kindergartner. “And your big public coming out is with a friend, not someone who can’t handle the pressure and breaks your heart.”

Karolina didn’t really have a counter to Nico’s points. “Fine, we can date,” she mumbled begrudgingly.

“Nope.”

“What?” Karolina asked, wondering if she would have whiplash from this whole weird morning.

“I’m not dating anyone who won’t actually ask me,” Nico said with a shit eating grin.

“Nico!”

“Fine!” Nico said with a laugh. “I’ll date you, but you have got to buy me a coffee. And I mean like right now, I need my caffeine.”

***

“Okay, Ms. Smarty Pants, when did we start dating?” Karolina asked as they drove towards Timely Coffee. Now that they had a plan Karolina felt more in control.

“Simple. We got together after Chase’s party a couple weeks ago. You drove me home and finally kissed me,” Nico explained, watching the cars whip past them.

“Finally?”

“Well yeah, you’ve clearly always had a thing for me,” Teased Nico, with that frustrating, adorable smirk.

“Clearly,” Karolina said with a smile as she pulled into the tiny parking lot at Timely Coffee. “Go see if you can get a spot on the couch, I know what you’re drinking.”

Karolina stepped into the cool, dark interior of the coffee shop and pushed her sunglasses onto her head. Timely was one of the few places she didn’t feel worried about being bothered by paparazzi or fans. The crowd at Timely was very laid back and the whole group of friend had come here since they were deemed old enough to get a Lyft.

“Hey Karo,” the barista, Nikki, said from behind the counter. Karolina was a fixture at the shop, both regular patrons and the employees treated her like a normal person. “What’s your poison?”

“Just an iced coffee for me. But can I get Nico’s monstrosity too?” she asked, making a face. She didn’t understand how Nico could drink six shots of espresso in her drink, but far be it from Karolina to get between Nico and caffeine.

Karolina paid and went to go find Nico. She was surprised to see Gert there and deep in conversation with Nico.

Gert gave a half-hearted wave to Karolina, undeterred from her current train of thought. And Nico looked at her pleadingly, begging for Gert to be distracted from her rant de jour.

“Gert, I hear you are our big defender,” Karolina said, sitting down next to Nico on the couch across from Gert.

That made Gert change tack quickly. “It was great! Well not great that some knuckle-draggers think they have the right to say anything about you guys. But I love my Twitter rants. And really most of the things people were saying weren’t bad,” Gert said, barely taking time to breathe.

“Thanks Gert,” Karolina said simply, cutting her friend off, “You’re a great friend.” All discussion was briefly halted when Nikki brought over their drinks and Gert’s as well.

As she watched Nico take her first drink of the radioactive coffee creation, Karolina felt a sharp elbow jab her in the side.Before she could complain, Nico had shoved her phone into Karolina’s hand.

On the phone was a screenshot of a gossip site with a picture of two blurry heads. Heads belonging to Karolina and Nico! In the bottom Nico had scrawled a message ‘put your arm around my shoulder.’

Without arguing, Karolina draped her arm over the back of the couch and somewhat touching Nico’s shoulders. But she wondered how, after years of coming to this place, the paparazzi had finally tracked her down.

Gert’s face stretched into a smile and she looked at Nico inquiringly. “So, how did your mom take the news? Your mom is whatever word is more intense than intense.”

“What?” Nico asked, coffee freezing halfway to her mouth.

“Your mom,” Gert prompted. “What did she say?”

Karolina swooped in for a quick save, “We hadn’t really told anybody yet, it’s still new.”

Clearly Nico had forgotten about having to tell her parents, because she went pale and all she said was, “Shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to admit, this may sound a bit out of character for Karolina. What I’m going off of is when they’re trying to find Alex and Karolina is freaking out (and then Nico hugs her!). So I feel it isn’t out of the realm of possibility for Karolina to not handle stress/not being in control of things well.
> 
> I love all of your comments! Thank you so much.
> 
> I’d also love to hear if there’s anything you as the readers would like to see in the fic!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to Nico’s POV. I don’t exactly gel with her as much so I’m noticing her chapters being shorter. But I feel like this chapter needs to be told by Nico.

“Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.” Nico had been muttering and swearing under her breath since the whole drive from Timely to her house. She’d gotten all wrapped up in how amusing Karolina’s early freak out had been, to the point where she’d forgotten about talking to her parents. Specifically her mom.

Tina Minoru was equal parts badass and hardass as a CEO. From revolutionizing the tech industry to creating programs for women in STEM, her mom was polarizing. You loved her or you hated her, but no one stood in her way. She let nothing slide, demanded the best effort, the best behavior, and never took no for an answer.

And her parenting style was the same as her business style. Which always made Nico feel like an employee whose annual review was going to be subpar.

“Shit,” she said again when she felt Karolina park the car in the driveway. She was feeling sick to her stomach at the thought of going inside.

“Nico, do you want me to come in with you?” Karolina offered, turning in her seat to face Nico.

She sighed a sat up straighter. “No, I need to face the firing squad on my own,” she said glumly.

“Your mom isn’t that bad. She’s nice to almost everyone. Except Stacey and Dale and their brie. And she’s always so nice to me,” said Karolina with a tilt of her head that made Nico’s stomach clench. But she put that down to nerves.

“Yeah, to you,” Nico said lamely, getting out of the car. To her surprise, Karolina got out of the car too.

“What kind of girlfriend would I be if I let you go in alone,” Karolina teased with a slight smile, extending a hand toward Nico. “I’ll even hold your hand.”

To her own surprise, Nico took Karolina’s hand and allowed herself to be pulled towards the house. “Fake girlfriend,” she shot back weakly, opening the front door.

“Delta User has arrived,” the house’s automated system announced as they walked in. “Designated Guest K. Dean has arrived.”

“Wizey, privacy mode,” she commanded, not really wanting her presence broadcast through the house.

“Alpha User override,” intoned the automated voice, and Nico could have sworn it sounded smug. “Alpha User requests your presence in the study.”

“Great,” murmured Nico, heading for the stairs and pulling Karolina along with her.

Up the stairs and to the left, the same way to her bedroom. But this time Nico couldn’t sneak past the study and barricade herself in her bedroom. “Mom?” Nico said, knocking on the frame of the open door. She hated how nervous her voice sounded.

“It’s about time!” her mom replied, coming around to the front of the desk to great them.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you wanted me to come home.” The best tactic was to apologize until she could retreat. “You should have messaged me.”

“What? No, Nico,” her mom laughed. Her mom laughed? What was going on? “Come in Karolina, come in.”

Nico’s jaw dropped as she watched her mother smiling as she hugged her friend. Her girlfriend. Her  _ fake _ girlfriend. What was going on? “What?”

“I’m glad you finally admitted how you feel about Karolina,” her mother said, squeezing Nico’s shoulder gently, almost warmly.

“What?” she repeated again, completely dumbfounded. The only explanation that made sense was brainsucking aliens. Or had Nico hit her head? Because this was making absolutely no sense. None of it.

Her mother laughed again. “You told me when you were about five or six that you were going to marry Karolina when you grew up. Nice to know some things don’t change.”

Nico felt her face heating up but couldn’t even begin to put words into a comprehensible order. The flush deepened when she heard Karolina laughing too. And Nico whipped around to glare at her.

“Aww, you’ve liked me that long?” Karolina teased gently, obviously getting a bit of revenge for the teasing Nico had done this morning.

“You had more sleepovers than I can count, always sharing a bed. Going to every school dance together. And the two of you have better non-verbal communication than your father and I. I knew it was only a matter of time,” her mom added, looking pleased. “And I’m never wrong.”

“Well now I have stories for Ellen,” Karolina said, and Nico heard her mom laugh. Beyond that things were starting to sound like static.

She didn’t know what to say. Hearing it like that was like getting punched in the gut. Had she always liked Karolina? Did she really  _ like  _ like Karolina? No, that wasn’t possible. That’s just the kind of friends they were. Right?  _ Right _ ?

“Nico.” Her mother’s voice broke through the chaos in Nico’s head.

“Huh?” That was about all she could manage right now.

“I’d love to stay for dinner, Mrs. Minoru,” Karolina answered for the both of them.

“Karolina, please, it’s Tina. I’ll let Robert know to pick up dinner for all of us,” her mom said, returning to sit behind her desk once more. “Why don’t you hang out in Nico’s room, it’s only about an hour or so until your dad will be home.”

“Great,” Nico forced herself to say, arranging her face into some semblance of a smile. She took a deep, steadying breath but didn’t feel any better. Perfect. Just perfect.

And there went the queasy feeling in her stomach again. And it didn’t feel like butterflies, right?  _ Right _ ?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I have to give credit for Tina’s behavior to a post I saw on Tumblr (http://crazyintheeast.tumblr.com/post/170004297570/i-have-literally-never-seen-tina-being-so) It was hilarious to me and it kinda spurred me into wanting to write this fic at all. And also, see Leslie’s face in the second image? Pretty sure both moms are hardcore on the Deanoru ship.
> 
> So, I don’t know if I will be posting this weekend or not, I just bought a condo and I’m putting on my tool belt and doing some work. Okay, I’m screwing switch plates on and hauling trash, just give me credit because I’m hopeless with tools. But we shall see where the weekend takes us.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Condo went well, I loved reading a bunch of comments on Sunday night!
> 
> This is a chapter that I’m not super happy with. We’re getting the gang together for an obligatory PRIDE meeting.
> 
> I don’t know that this is terribly relevant, but I’m kinda going with the bulk of the Runaways being 19 (which makes Molly 17 and Amy 21). Nico is going to school, major undecided (as in I have not decided what feels right for her - suggestions?) and Karolina is not, at her mom’s urging.
> 
> Also, I have been informed that the Teen Choice Awards are usually in August, so there’s a time frame for us.
> 
> I’ve also made a few changes, but mostly edits and blink and you’ll miss it kind of things. Nothing super important or story changing.

Karolina went home later that night with a phone full of pictures. Pictures of her and Nico, from diapers to diplomas. And Karolina didn’t have any problem admitting that she spent a good portion looking through them again. Sure there were a lot of pictures with all of their other friends, but the majority of the pictures were just of Nico and Karolina.

A picture from Halloween when they were about eight or nine. Sure the whole group were involved but in the foreground were Karolina and Nico. Karolina, in her pink Glinda dress, hugging Wicked Witch of the West Nico so tightly that a streak of green had rubbed off on her cheek.

An endless number of snapshots from years of sleepovers. The only thing showing the passage of time was a slight change in the pajamas each girl was wearing.

At least six pictures from different school dances that they attended without dates. But it was clear in each picture that they’d been more than happy to spend time together instead of with anyone else.

The evidence didn’t lie. They were just best friends. But honestly, it looked like more. And these pictures would be great to keep this Deanoru thing rolling. There was a small part of Karolina that didn’t want to share them with the world. They felt too special for that.

She was flipping through the pictures Nico’s mom had sent her when the phone vibrated with a text.

 **1:22 am**  
Nico  <3:  
U awake?

Karolina hadn’t realized that it was that late, she usually went to bed earlier than this. But still she didn’t hesitate to call Nico immediately. “Hey, what’s up?” she asked as soon as the call connected.

“Oh.” Nico’s voice sounded tired through the phone. “I didn’t wake you did I?”

“No, I haven’t gone to bed yet,” Karolina admitted.

“You mean you don’t actually turn into a gremlin if you stay up past midnight?” asked Nico with an exaggerated gasp.

“Shut up!” Karolina said playfully, unable to keep from laughing. “What did you want to talk about, when you texted?”

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. “Yeah, about that. I was thinking about something that I need to run by you.”

“What is it Nico?” Karolina asked, feeling a little worried. Maybe Nico was getting tired of this plan already. She certainly hadn’t seemed enthusiastic after dinner with the normally stoic and reserved Minorus. In fact, Nico had looked down right nauseous.

“I don’t think I can break up with you. I mean, not soon, or as soon as we planned. That would put the breakup near your birthday. And I wouldn’t do that to you,” Nico rambled without taking a breath,

Karolina had to take a second to decipher what Nico had said, then sighed in relief. “Nico, that’s fine.”

“But it isn’t!” Nico interjected quickly, sounding tired but firm. “Because if we wait until after your birthday, it is almost Thanksgiving. And after Thanksgiving is Christmas, then New Years, then Valentine’s Day. We might have gotten in over our heads!” Nico’s voice sounded very intense and concerned and like she’d been awake worrying over this for quite a while.

Karolina couldn’t help but laugh. She hadn’t needed to worry, apparently Nico was still invested in them. Or the them they were presenting to the world. “Nico, it’s okay to break up before a holiday. Even before my birthday. It isn’t a big deal.”

“Not to me,” she replied with finality. “That’s just a shitty thing to do. And you deserve better than that as my girlfriend. Fake girlfriend. Whatever.”

“Nico, go to bed. We’ll talk about it tomorrow, It’s PRIDE day. Good night Nico.”

“Night Karolina.”

***

She wasn’t sure why they all still went with their parents to PRIDE meetings; except for Molly, they were all adults and out of high school. But they still got together. No one knew you like the people who knew you as a kid. Still, Karolina rode with her mom and dad to the Wilder’s house, feeling like she was twelve again.

“Alright, I’ll see you guys after the meeting,” Karolina said, hoping to hop out of the car and make her escape quickly.

“Karolina, aren’t you going to come say hi?” her mom asked, in a way that was definitely not asking. “I’m sure everyone would love to see you.”

“Yeah, sure,” she said, resigned to being passed around between her parents friends. It was hard to remember that she was an adult and a successful actress when the PRIDE parents got together. They all remembered every single embarrassing thing about you. And continued to bring it up years later.

And yes, there were the Yorkeses, on an intercept trajectory. With their brie. And Karolina actually didn’t like brie, but she was also too polite to say no.

But, surprisingly, the Yorkeses were fended off by an unprecedented second hug in as many days from Tina Minoru. “So good to see you again Karolina. The rest of the kids are already out back, why don’t you join them.”

Karolina took the out she was offered and waved to the assembled PRIDE members before slipping out the door. It was easy to follow the lights and music across the yard to the guest house, even if she hadn’t known the way.

“Hey guys,” she said, entering the guest house, everyone sitting in their regular spots. She got a handful of greetings back but the only conversation that picked up was Molly’s near constant chatter, but no one was responding to their youngest friend.

“Okay, what’s going on?” she asked after a minute or two of the awkwardness. “No one is talking, except Molly, no offense.”

“None taken,” Molly replied quickly.

Chase looked quickly at Gert and answered before she could. “You and Nico are dating!”

“So?” she said, looking around at her friends. She even turned to look at Nico for some context. She wasn’t sure why they were acting this way. All of her friends knew she was gay, she’d told them all three years ago.

“I forbade Chase from making any lewd comments, so there’s that. And who knows with Alex,” Gert said dismissively.

“I can hear you,” Alex said, not looking up from his laptop or taking out his earbuds.

“Good,” shot back Gert without looking at him.

“Well, Chase, I guess you can talk,” Karolina said, wanting to not feel like the center of attention.

She almost regretted saying that when Chase’s mouth pulled into a grin. Only the spark of mischief in his eyes let Karolina know he wasn’t going to go overboard. “I gotta know what it is like to kiss Nico. I mean Alex has been wanting to since middle school!”

“Chase!” Two voices sounded out at the same time. Alex sounded more embarrassed and Gert sounded exasperated.

Karolina turned, ready for the snark Nico was sure to unleash on their goofy friend. But when she turned Nico’s face was right there. And then their lips were touching. Oh. Nico was kissing her. _Nico was kissing her!_

It took Karolina by surprise for half a second but she quickly leaned into the kiss. As she leaned forward, Nico pulled back. The kiss was over as quickly as it had begun. And Karolina felt a little bit dazed by the fact that Nico had kissed her.

“Happy asshat?” Nico said, levelling a glare at Chase.

 _Yes!_ Karolina thought as hard as she could, almost hoping Nico would hear what she was thinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re harkening back to the Tumblr post I shared in the last chapter for Tina hugging Karolina, again.
> 
> And there's a kiss!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have made a decision to go off Anonymous. I wasn’t sure at first because I just wanted to get my feet wet but I didn’t really want to put pressure on myself if the idea flopped or something. So Chapter 7 will be under my real name.
> 
> So this chapter has Ellen! And cutesy interview time.

Karolina’s whole morning is sort of a blur. Between hair and makeup she doesn’t know where the time goes. And then a quick check in with Ellen that must have left her starstruck because all of a sudden she’s walking out onto the stage to a cascade of cheers and applause.

“So, Karolina,” Ellen begins, once they are both situated in their chairs. “I hear you sort of stole the show at the Teen Choice Awards on Friday.”

Karolina just smiles and shakes her head. “I really didn’t mean to. We were just going as friends, I mean, we hadn’t even told our parents that we had started dating,” she said, feeling a light blush crawl up her cheeks.

“This wasn’t planned then? How do you feel about being forced to come out?” asks Ellen gently.

She’s a little bit nervous, but that’s always when she’s done her best acting: when she can channel emotions into a performance. “To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know until the next morning! But I haven’t hidden my sexuality. I’ve been out to the people that matter for a few years now. And the response has been overwhelming.”

“And your family and friends, they’re taking it well I hope.” Karolina can tell she being steered somewhere but goes with it.

“Mostly they’ve said ‘finally!’ Even Nico’s mom said that,” Karolina admits with a laugh.

There’s a grin on Ellen’s face as she gears up for something Karolina had not been briefed on. “Speaking of our favorite Wizard CEO, Tina Minoru has sent a couple things for us today. So, Karolina, cover your eyes while we bring out the first surprise.”

Karolina closes her eyes without protest. But she can sense Ellen probably making funny gestures, testing to make sure that Karolina can’t see a thing. “If you’re trying to scare me, fair warning, I will probably scream,” Karolina joked, jumping slightly when she feels a hand on her shoulder.

“I hope you don’t scream, I don’t think I’m that scary,” a very familiar voice says.

Karolina is turning and has her eyes open before she gets out a single syllable. “Nico!”

“Surprise,” Nico says with a big grin pulling at her lips, leaning over the chair arm to hug Karolina tightly. 

Karolina had sworn up and down that she didn’t need Nico to come to the taping. Nico was busy with her unofficial Wizard internship and Karolina didn’t want to be a needy girlfriend. Fake girlfriend. “But you-”

“When the CEO tells you that you aren’t working, you don’t argue,” Nico answered before Karolina could get her question out.

“This is actually great,” Ellen said, interrupting their moment gently, “Because the other surprise was a boatload of pictures of the two of you.”

But Karolina couldn’t think of anything too embarrassing that she couldn’t handle with Nico by her side. She took Nico’s hand in hers and looked expectantly towards the screen.

***

“You didn’t have to come to the show today,” Karolina repeated for the umpteenth time as they sat by the edge of the pool. They had retreated back to Karolina’s house after feeling the strain of too much pretending. It was one thing in front of their family and friends, but filming for a national talk show took it to another level.

“I know I didn’t have to, I wanted to, whatever,” Nico said, dipping her hand into the water and sending a wave splashing over Karolina’s legs. 

“Thanks, again,” Karolina said simply. She didn’t speak for a moment, weighing if she wanted to continue her train of thought. But eventually she continued. “I’m glad you were there, I was actually pretty nervous.”

“Nervous? You?” Nico asked skeptically. “You’re an actress, how do you get nervous talking to people?” The questions seemed genuine instead of teasing.

Karolina shrugged. “That’s playing a part, this was talking about me. I don’t like to share too much me with all of them,” she said, with a wide gesture of one arm into the open space behind them.

“I get it,” Nico said quietly, gazing pensively into the pool.

A mischievous smile curled onto Karolina’s lips as she dipped her hand into the water and flicked it at Nico.

The splash made Nico jump and turn towards Karolina with an exaggerated glare. “Quit it,” she said, splashing back.

“No,” Karolina said, bending over to swish more of her arm through the water and create a bigger wave.

They quickly dissolved into giggles and splashing like a pair of five year olds. More water made in onto the concrete around them than on each other. At least until Nico overbalanced and slid into the water with a yelp.

Karolina couldn’t help but laugh at her friend’s plight, at least until a hand gripped her ankle and she was pulled in as well. She floundered to the surface with a gasp, ready to read Nico the riot act.

But when she broke the surface, Karolina found herself much closer to Nico than she’d anticipated. They were both treading water but so close that Karolina could feel every breath Nico took. She couldn’t move away. She felt hypnotized.

And Nico seemed equally dazed, because she didn’t move back. Was it Karolina’s imagination or did Nico actually move closer?

Yes, Karolina was certain, they were getting closer. And closer. And -

“KAROLINA!” a voice called, splitting the silence and forcing them apart.

“Coming mom,” Karolina called back, sounding breathless to her own ears. She quickly hauled herself out of the pool, water cascading down her body as Karolina turned to offer Nico a helping hand. Only to find that Nico had moved to the ladder a few yards away. 

And, surprisingly, the distance made her feel like a stone had dropped into her stomach. Karolina shook that off, along with what felt like a few gallons of pool water, as she began heading up towards the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Certainly not my best chapter by any means, but I’m not feeling great. And hopefully I didn’t malign Ellen too badly.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is me, without using anonymous anymore. Honestly a big reason I dropped anonymous is because I wanted to flail at people in their comments but I don’t think you can and stay anonymous. So be prepared for me blushing and flailing on comments.
> 
> I’m going to split the chapter between Karolina (the first part) and Nico (the second part). So we’ll see how that works.

The week after the interview with Ellen airs there is a huge spike in Karolina’s popularity. There are more tweets about her and Nico and #Deanoru than she can possibly look at. Every single picture from her Instagram that Nico is in (and quite a few she isn’t) gain likes and comments like it is going out of style. Karolina wishes she would go out of style; the constant barrage is wearing on her.

Besides the fans, she is also much more popular with studios and producers. In the last week she has been offered four movie parts, six guest spots on sitcoms, two roles in new pilots, and even a Superbowl commercial came calling.

The veritable tidal wave of projects are almost making Karolina dizzy. And to put a cherry on top of a hectic week, she was dragged to a meeting with Jonah.

Jonah is slimy and smooth talking, just like all producers are. But he gives Karolina the willies. Especially having to sit across the table from him as he describes the latest project on offer.

“It’s a Hallmark movie, a Christmas one, so we need to move fast so it is ready in two months,” Jonah explains with a slick smile, pushing the script to Karolina. “Your character runs a Christmas tree farm in Fairbanks, Alaska.”

“And you’re replacing an actor who had to go to rehab? Is that right?” her mom asked Jonah pointedly.

Karolina tunes them out. She flicks through the script, listening with half an ear as Jonah banters with her mom and then runs through the plot points. “Who is playing the love interest,” Karolina asks, flipping a couple pages to find the name again, “Jordan?”

Jonah grins again, and Karolina can see all of his bright, white teeth. “That’s the big draw, we’re bringing in Liz Larson. She just finished that young adult movie series, The Chronicles of Harry Everdeen or whatever it was. So it is a coup to get her on board.”

Karolina took that in for a beat before her brows pull into a frown. But before she could ask the question on the tip of her tongue, her mom interrupted.

“So you want to ride the coattails of Karolina’s coming out for this?” her mom asks bluntly. Usually Leslie Dean is the epitome of polished and professional but she is more laid back whenever she talks with Jonah. They are old friends, which has led to Karolina working with Jonah more than she would like.

Karolina mulls the idea over, tuning out her mom and Jonah’s discussion. She has to admit that the idea is actually an interesting one. Her mom has steered her away from roles that had even the slightest whiff of lesbian activity. But the cat was already out of the bag, so why continue on as they had been.

“I’ll do it,” she announces without any preamble. Her mom freezes mid-sentence but Jonah jumps on her acceptance eagerly.

“Great!” Jonah said, clapping his hands together. “We’re set to start filming next week, so we need to get you on set by tomorrow or the day after at the latest. You’d better pack for some chilly weather. Fairbanks is a lot colder than L.A.”

***

“Come in,” Nico called when she heard a knock at her door. She didn’t bother, at first, to look up from her phone until a gentle throat clearing broke her concentration.

“Hi Nico,” Karolina said from the doorway before coming to sit on the edge of Nico’s bed.

Nico quickly shut down the app she had been playing. “Sorry, did I miss our date?” she asked with a smirk. She knew they didn’t have a date, but the idea didn’t sound completely terrible. Maybe she could convince Karolina that they needed to go on a date, to firm up their fake relationship. “Wait, how did you get in? Wizey didn’t tell me anyone was here.”

That comment brought a smile to Karolina’s face. “Apparently your mom added me to the system as a family user. Wizey let me right in.”

“Cool,” she replied, ignoring the pleasant fluttery feeling she got at the idea of Karolina being part of her family. “What brings you by?”

Karolina didn’t answer right away, instead fiddling with the hem of her t-shirt. “I got a part in a movie,” she said eventually.

“That’s great, right?” Nico asked, wondering why Karolina needed to come tell her in person. “What kind of movie?”

“A Christmas Hallmark movie, I’m leaving for Alaska tomorrow morning,” Karolina explained, picking up speed with each word. “I didn’t even think to run it by you and I have to kiss Liz Larson!”

Nico blinked as she tried to wrap her head around the stream of words Karolina just produced. “I think I understood everything but that last bit. Mind running that by me again,” Nico said, asking for clarification because there was a tiny part of her afraid that she had heard Karolina correctly.

“I’m starring in a movie with Liz Larson. A cute, romantic Hallmark movie, opposite an actress I’ve had a crush on for over a year!” Karolina said with a groan.

“You better not cheat on me with some actress,” Nico teased, even as she felt a weird flutter in her stomach.

“Shut up,” Karolina retorts, flinging a pillow Nico’s way.

She ducks the projectile with a light chuckle. “So, how long are you going to be gone?” Nico asks moving to sit closer to Karolina. 

Karolina shrugs, shoulder brushing Nico’s thigh. “They’re not sure, Jonah says it will take at least two weeks, maybe three. A month if things go wrong.” 

“Well, then you better act the hell out of this movie. The less time with Jonah, the better.” Nico hasn’t met the guy but she trusts Karolina. And if Karolina, who likes everyone, doesn’t like someone then Nico is inclined to agree. “And then you’ll get back here sooner.”

She can admit that she does not like the idea of not being able to see her best friend for a long stretch of time. And that’s the only reason she can’t wait for Karolina to come back, even if she hasn’t left yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I agonized over this chapter for over a day, it didn't feel right and I wasn't sure about posting. I'm still not loving it, but hopefully you guys do. Let me know what you think.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we’re off to Alaska! Or Karolina is. Hopefully you guys like Liz Larson, she’s based off of a friend of mine.

Karolina stepped off the plane in Fairbanks and felt her breath catch in her throat at the spectacular view. But she barely had time to take it all in, as she was quickly hustled into a waiting van for the drive to the actual location. 

Apparently Karolina hadn’t listened, or Jonah hadn’t mentioned, which was probably more likely. The actual filming was going to take place primarily in Denali National Park, with the cast and crew staying in McKinley Park.

Taking her phone out, Karolina struggled to take a few pictures that didn’t turn out looking like blurry trees. She nearly dropped her phone when someone sat up in the row behind her.

“We there yet?” a sleep laden voice asked as a hooded head popped up from the van’s back row.

The driver looked in the rearview mirror with a chuckle. “Not quite yet, Miss Larson. We just picked up Miss Dean. About another hour to McKinley Park.”

“M’kay,” the hooded figure said finally looking in Karolina’s direction. “So you’re my co-star? I’m Liz.”

Karolina felt her jaw drop. She was sitting in the same van as Liz Larson. Liz Larson, who looked very much like a bear emerging from hibernation. And one that wasn’t exactly happy about it.

“Karolina,” she said, offering a handshake over the seat back. She was happy that she sounded much calmer than she felt.

The handshake was returned by a gloved hand. “Sorry, I flew here from Mexico and I had no clothes that were weather appropriate. And the only reason I’m not a popsicle is because Ernie loaned me some clothes. Thanks again Ernie.”

“No problem, Miss Larson,” their driver, Ernie, said without taking his eyes off the road.

“Just give me five minutes and we can get started with the first pictures,” Liz said before ducking back down behind the seat.

Karolina stared blankly at the space where her new co-star had been. “What pictures?” she asked after a moment feeling confused.

“Didn’t you get the memo?” asked Liz, popping up again without the sweatshirt and with half fixed makeup. “We’re supposed to promote the hell out of this movie.”

“I didn’t know that,” admitted Karolina. “I only was told about this movie yesterday.” Had it only been yesterday that she’d gotten the part? That thought threatened to make Karolina’s head spin. 

“Oh right,” Liz said, still out of sight behind the seat. “Well, since that third rate Chris Evans wannabe -”

“Josh Garrett?” Karolina asked, but Liz continued on without pause.

“Can’t keep from snorting his entire paycheck up his nose, we need to do a ton of good press for the movie.” The person who appeared from the back seat looked nothing like a hibernating bear. Liz had changed into a long-sleeve tee and done her makeup; an impressive feat since they were rocketting down the highway. Even her hair looked straightened; the dark locks vastly improved from the messy ponytail it was in five minutes ago.

“Should I change?” Karolina asked, knowing she couldn’t pull off that kind of transformation in the back of a moving vehicle.

“No way!” Liz told her, leaning over the seat, phone in hand. “You look great, I always look like a hobo after traveling. Say cheese!” 

Liz snapped the picture before Karolina was ready but from the brief glance it looked good. She watched Liz fiddle with filters before posting the picture.

“‘Ready to start filming #ChristmasTreeMiracle with @KarolinaDean’ that’s your handle right?” Liz asked without looking up from her phone. “‘#Alaska #BehindTheScenes #Hallmark.’ And post.”

Karolina felt like her head was spinning. Less than an hour ago she’d been on a plane fretting over meeting Liz Larson. And now she was taking pictures with her like they were best friends.

The rest of the drive passed with Liz chatting a mile a minute, and Karolina attempting to keep up.

“So, how is your girlfriend taking this?” Liz asked as they arrived in McKinley Park. “Being away from you for almost a month that you get to spend with me!” Liz executed an over the top flounce out of the van. “Though I am tragically heterosexual.”

“Girlfriend?” Karolina repeated as she followed Liz out of the van. Her brain was still stuck on the previous conversation and struggling to keep up.

That brought Liz around quickly. And Karolina was surprised to see that Liz’s face could actually pull into a frown. “You’re not one of those people are you? What happens on set stays on set?” asked Liz with a disappointed look on her face. 

“What? No!” Karolina scrambled to keep everything under control. “I wouldn’t do that. And Nico seemed fine with it, we didn’t get to talk a lot, but she seemed fine.”

“Uh huh.”

“I swear! It’s just that we’re still new, so sometimes when people say my girlfriend, it throws me off a bit,” explained Karolina with a weak shrug.

“Uh huh,” was Liz’s only response. But she gave Karolina a long, searching look before they were interrupted by the production team.

The two were led off to meet with hair and makeup, wardrobe, and craft services. The entire time, Karolina can feel Liz’s eyes on her, burning a hole in her back. At least when they aren’t taking pictures together.

A picture with them both wearing wigs in hair and makeup. A picture in front of sheer mountains of flannel that seem to be the sum total of Karolina’s wardrobe. Goofing around with one of the camera mounts.

It felt surreal for Karolina. They switched back and forth. One minute Liz would goad Karolina into hamming it up for social media posts. The next minute Liz’s laser focus was targeted on Karolina. It was deeply uncomfortable.

When the director reminded them that they had an early morning Karolina was relieved. She grabbed a sandwich from craft service and quickly retreated to the room that would be hers for the next few weeks.

Her brief moment of peace was broken by a knock on the door that was none too gentle.

***

“Come in,” Nico said putting down her phone. She knew, without consulting Wizey, that it would be her mom on the other side of the door. Her mom had been giving her weird looks ever since dinner. And Nico doubted that her mom had a burning desire to know how her first day of classes went.

“Nico, I wanted to talk to you about our plans for Labor Day weekend,” her mother said, surprising Nico with the topic of discussion.

“What about it?” The PRIDE families always got together for a cookout at one house or another. It had been going on for as long as Nico could remember.

“I thought you might want to do something different this year.” Her mother sat on the edge of her bed and looked at Nico before continuing. “I was thinking, since you don’t have class on Friday, you might like to take a trip for the four day weekend.”

Nico felt like she was about to spring a trap, but didn’t know how to avoid it. “That sounds cool, where are we going?”

“You would go to Alaska. I can tell how much you miss Karolina already, and it would be such a nice early birthday surprise for her.” Nico was almost horrified at how excited her mom sounded.

“Mom! Stop! That’s so weird!” Nico complained, shaking her head at her meddling mother. “I can’t just show up on set!”

Her mom just smiled and patted Nico’s leg. “Just think about it, tell me by Thursday so I can book you a ticket and get a car for you.” Without another word her mom left Nico to her own devices.

Nico shook her head and picked her phone up again. She wasn’t sure she’d want to go to Alaska. Not after seeing half a dozen pictures of Karolina looking really chummy with Liz Larson.

She felt a wave of emotion as the most recent picture popped up on Nico’s timeline. Seeing Karolina smile so brightly made Nico’s stomach clench. 

With a huff Nico flicked off her lights and crawled into bed. She didn’t want to think about this right now.

Not that she didn’t want Karolina to smile, that wasn’t it. But Nico hadn’t expected the two of them to be so buddy buddy quite so quickly. She didn’t need to go to Alaska and see the two of them giggle and laugh.

But maybe she would go to Alaska. Maybe she’d get there and see Karolina and calm this queasy feeling in her stomach.

A barrage of contradictory and uncomfortable thoughts followed Nico into an uneasy sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys like this chapter! Let me know what you think!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The hits on this fic are almost about to pass the hits on all the rest of my fics combined! I’m very gratified by the response to this fic, you guys are amazing.

“Karolina, it’s Liz. Karolina, open up.”

Karolina can feel each knock on the door reverberating through her back.

“Karolina, I’ve got something to say and you don’t want me to say it in the hall, I promise you that,” Liz says through the door, pounding so hard that Karolina wonders if she brought a sledge hammer.

Karolina decides it is better to open the door than wait for Liz to knock it down. “What is it? I’m trying to get ready for bed,” she asks, opening the door a crack. She wedges her foot behind the door, wanting to keep Liz out.

But Liz is not easily deterred and pushes on the door with a strength Karolina could not have guessed at. In a flash, Liz is inside the hotel room. The door is shut again but now Liz is inside and appraising Karolina with a look that makes her grey eyes look like chips of steel.

“What is it?” Karolina asks, crossing her arms and feeling uncomfortable under the stare being aimed her way.

There’s a stoney look on Liz’s face that doesn’t change a bit as she nearly yells, “Liar liar pants on fire!”

The phrasing, more than being yelled at, throws Karolina for a loop. Whatever she’d been expecting, it wasn’t being yelled at in such a childish way. “What?” she manages to say, feeling both confused and defensive.

“You are such a terrible liar, I have no idea how you can call yourself an actress! I can’t believe everyone is falling for it!” Liz laughs, the harshness falling off of her face in a heartbeat, replaced with a cheerful but vindicated look.

The last few seconds have left Karolina feeling dazed. “Are you crazy or something?” she asks after a long moment of failing to wrap her head around what is happening.

“No, I’m an actress,” replies Liz cheerfully before making herself quite at home on Karolina’s bed.“You’re totally faking your relationship with Nico,”

Karolina felt a little dumb, but all she could think to say was, “What?”

“I could totally tell. You were acting so twitchy about the whole thing. And I really hope your acting on camera is better than how terrible at keeping secrets you are,”  said Liz matter of factly.

“I’m not terrible,” huffed Karolina, defending the first thing that came to mind.

“I’ve been in enough PR relationships to spot one a mile away. Or did you think I actually loved Trevor Quinn?” Liz levered herself off of the bed and pulled Karolina over so that they were both sitting. “So spill, I’ve been there and done that and it sucked.”

Karolina can’t help but feel just a little relieved, she’d been dying to talk to someone. And the person she would usually talk to was Nico; but she couldn’t very well talk to Nico about how she might actually like Nico.

“It was an accident! We were just at the award show and people started making comments online. And then our friend went on a rant which everyone took to be confirmation. I woke up and Deanoru was trending,” Karolina says in a rush, feeling like a balloon that all the air has been let out of. But it also felt good, like a weight was off her shoulders.

“Whew,” Liz whistles, making a face. “What a cluster fuck. And your mom just made you go along with it? Bitch.”

“I don’t think she knows it isn’t real. I was too stunned to say anything and she’d already scheduled Ellen,” complained Karolina, slumping down onto the bed. 

“Yikes, this is worse than one of those shitty comedies. Makes me wish I had some popcorn.”

“Shut up,” Karolina said half heartedly, glad that Liz had pushed her way into her room. “And Nico said we should just go with it. And now everything is weird and different and-”

“Oh my gosh, you like her. For real!” Liz interjected.

“What?”

“You like like your best friend that you’re pretending to date!” Liz began to laugh and Karolina felt her cheeks flush. “Oh Karolina you useless lesbian!”

Karolina was quiet for a long moment. Did she really like Nico? It would make everything make sense. Especially what happened in the pool. Or what almost happened. “I think I do really like her,” Karolina murmured. Just saying it out loud made everything click. “Oh my god.”

“So,” Liz forged on, not giving Karolina a moment for her entire worldview to reorient, “She likes you too, obviously. Because she just upended her life to pretend to be your girlfriend.”

“She doesn’t like me like that,” Karolina immediately argued back. She was still feeling like her whole world had yet to settle back into reality. Like a snowglobe that someone kept shaking.

“Well, find out!” commanded Liz, grabbing Karolina’s phone from the nightstand. “Call her. Now!”

“No way!” Karolina snatched her phone away quickly, preventing Liz from calling for her.

“I bet you she likes you. And we can totally prove me right,” Liz said, jumping off the bed and heading for the door.

Karolina stood up to follow her. “Where are you going? What are you doing?” she asked nervously.

“Going to bed,” Liz said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Because tomorrow, bright and early, starts Operation Jealousy. Sleep tight, don’t let the Alaskan bed bugs bite.” And the door closed behind her with finality.

Karolina wasn’t sure if she had just imagined what had happened. But she also doubted it; her imagination wasn’t that good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gunna lie, I totally wanted to start the chapter with Karolina the next morning and she wakes up with Liz in her bed before flashing back to the scene I did write. But I thought that would be too cruel.
> 
> And I totally did not mean for it to take this long. I’m moving next weekend and visiting my sister this weekend, so things are crazy right now. So this chapter is kinda short and kinda unpolished because I didn’t want to leave you hanging.
> 
> I am also looking for someone to bounce ideas off of and sort of be my support. If you are interested message me on my Tumbr which is soverymediaaddicted.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am super sorry for not posting in a long time! I've been massively stressed and busy. I had to visit my sister and move and now I'm dealing with a broken garage door and I don't think I've written a word in almost two weeks. I wanted to post something longer but I thought I should give you guys something for being patient.

For the second time in less than twelve hours, thunderous knocks assailed Karolina’s door. “Open up Kare-Bear,” sing-songed Liz from the hall.

“Do you have an off button?” Karolina asked as she opened the door. She’d been going for a tone of annoyance, but instead it came out more pleadingly.

The whirlwind named Liz pushed her way in and began grabbing things from around the room. Some were put into a bag and others quickly became projectiles.

A shoe nearly missed hitting Karolina in the face and she wisely ducked before the mate came flying her way as well. “What are you doing?” she asked as a hoodie was lobbed in her direction.

“We’ve got a sunrise shoot up in the park. Shoes on, let’s go.”

Despite being half dragged down the hall, Karolina managed, barely, to get her shoes on before Liz got them outside.  “And my friends think I’m peppy,” Karolina mutters to herself, once more sitting in the back of the van with Liz. But this time they are joined by an assistant director, one of the makeup artists Karolina met yesterday, and half a dozen other people who have important jobs, but she isn’t entirely sure what those might be.

“Ok, as soon as we’re on location, Karolina you need to get in hair and makeup as fast as possible,” the assistant director, Karolina thinks his name was James, said without looking up from his tablet. “Liz, you’ve got a bit more time, but we need to get this scene shot within an hour and a half. Got it?”

“Uh, yeah,” Karolina mumbled, scrambling to grab her script for some last minute prep. “What scene are we shooting?”

“We rewrote the scene where you chop down the Christmas tree. We wanted to have it be predawn and then have the kiss be right at sunrise,” James, she’s 90% sure that’s his name, says as he hands a couple of hastily bound pages of rewritten script. “The dialogue is mostly the same.”

Using her phone for light, Karolina skims through the rewrites and doesn’t see any changes to her lines. Her part had originally been a terse woodsman who fell in love with a city slicker. And now that the part had been changed to a woodswoman, no other changes seem to have been made.

She could tell they were almost on location because the glow on the horizon certainly wasn’t sunrise. As the van pulled into the pool of light provided by mounted flood lights Karolina gasped. The ground for a couple hundred yards was snow covered!

It was an odd sensation to see snow but barely need a sweatshirt. The only chill Karolina felt was the wind of her passing as the hair and makeup people hustled her off to get ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again thank you for being patient with me. I'm hoping by the weekend to have no more stress and get back to writing. I promise the next chapter will be better and longer. Sorry.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for all of your kind words and for being patient with me. Now, I can say, with almost absolute certainty, that no one will have been able to predict how this chapter begins. But if you were you need to get the hell out of my brain.
> 
> Also, please tell me what you think of the formatting, I’m trying something different. To differentiate between Karolina and Karolina’s characters when she’s acting. Also, Karolina is Nic and Liz is Jordan, just FYI because I don’t know that I ever said for Karolina and it has been a long time since I mentioned the name Jordan.

_Nic could feel every panting breath. Jordan’s lips were close enough to touch hers._

_She brought a gloved hand up to brush errant snow from Jordan’s dark curls. “I thought.” Her emotions made the words stick in her throat. “I thought you were gone. Back to Chicago.”_

_“I couldn’t leave. Not without seeing you again,” Jordan gasped, still out of breath from the climb._

_“I feel like I might die if I don’t kiss you again,” Nic said, unable to take her eyes off Jordan’s plump, red lips. “I would do anything to kiss you, one last time.”_

_“Anything?” gasped Jordan, leaning in closer._

_“I’d do anything for you, don’t you know that by now?” Nic told her, moving her hand to cup Jordan’s rosy cheek._

_“Then perish.”_

That brought Karolina grinding to a halt. That certainly wasn’t the line.

“Cut!” yelled Sasha, the director, who barely managed to keep her face straight. “Really Liz?”

But there was no way Liz heard the admonishment, she was too busy laughing up a storm. “Sorry, sorry,” Liz managed to wheeze out, not looking contrite in the slightest.

“Want to roll again?” James asked Sasha, looking dubiously at the brightening sky.

Sasha seemed to agree with her AD and called a halt to the filming. “Liz, if one of the other takes isn’t perfect, I’m blaming you for ruining that last shot.”

“Save it for the bloopers,” Liz offered, finally beginning to calm down from her laughing fit.

“We don’t do bloopers in Hallmark movies,” James said, looking annoyed that the director hadn’t taken Liz to task. “We only have so much time and you can’t keep wasting it!”

Karolina ignored the third tirade she’d heard from James just this morning. Karolina was exhausted. It was only 6:30 and they’d already been working for almost three hours. And on top of that, it looked like they’d have a few more hours of filming in the afternoon.

She sat down just inside of the van’s open door. Karolina watched, almost mesmerized, the dance of the crew taking down and putting away all the equipment. She broke out of her haze when a camera flashed.

Liz stood grinning, fingers flying across her phone. “And post,” she said with a grin.

“What did you just do?” Karolina asked, almost too tired to care.

“Took a picture, that’s all.” Liz gave her most innocent face before breaking into a grin. “And said how much you miss Nico. I told you, we’re going to find out if she likes you if it kills us.”

“Liz,” Karolina growled through clenched teeth.

“That’s perfect! Keep that anger in the front of your mind. It is perfect for the scene later, the confrontation.” Liz grinned and Karolina felt her hands curl into fists.

Whatever Karolina was going to say was interrupted by the arrival of the crew to hop in the vans. Karolina hopped in the front seat to get some distance from Liz. She was pleasantly surprised to find Ernie driving the van, just like he had done the day before.

The drive back to town was quick and quiet, most of the crew in various stages of somnolence. Karolina drifted until a gentle hand on her shoulder brought her to full consciousness.

“We’re back, Miss Dean,” Ernie said gently as he turned off the van.

“Thanks, Ernie,” Karolina said, ready to head back to her room and sleep a little bit more.

“Don’t mention it,” the driver said with a small smile as Karolina headed towards the hotel and a few more hours in bed.

***

Nico heard her phone chirp with a notification and groaned. There was no notification important enough to wake up at 7:30 to deal with. She rolled over and put the notification out of her mind.

It certainly wasn’t on her mind when Wizey woke her up two hours later, with barely enough time to get dressed and make it to her first class.

And during the next few hours of classes, Nico only vaguely remembered that something had woken her up early.

During her Lyft ride after classes all of Nico’s attention was on her phone call with Gert. Gert always got like this when Chase went back to Penn State after a break or long weekend. Normally Gert would talk Karolina’s ear off, but today Nico had to fill in.

That thought brought Nico’s mind back to the alert from this morning. Only two alerts were given high enough priority to actually make noise. Anything posted by Karolina had been a long standing aleter. And yesterday Nico had, begrudgingly, added Liz Larson to her high priority alerts.

Nico deftly got Gert off the phone and tipped her driver before heading onto the house. She was almost entirely sure it wasn’t a post from any of Karolina’s accounts. Karolina posted infrequently when she wasn’t working on a project. It was more like radio silence during filming.

The very thought that it was another post from Liz left Nico with an uncomfortable sensation in her stomach.

When she opened the phone Nico barely contained her disappointment, it was another post from Liz. But the disappointment was quickly replaced by confusion.

The picture was just of Karolina, though only her lifelong friendship clued Nico in to the fact that it actually was Karolina. The girl in the picture looked different as she gazed listlessly at something the picture didn’t show. Her best friend looked like she’d taken a trip to an alternate universe.

Karolina, who usually wore cute dresses, was bundled up in a barn jacket with a dark blue plaid shirt poking out topped off with a ratty beanie covering her hair. And while Karolina usually had a light hand with makeup, Nico would have been hard pressed to say that there was makeup on Karolina at all. Normally the visual would have made Nico laugh, but her attention was focused on the caption.

_Quick pic while filming #ChristmasTreeMiracle with @KarolinaDean. Someone is missing @NicoMeanoru._

And that was her handle. Liz Larson had made a post about how Karolina missed Nico. Maybe Alaska was Bizzaro World, because yesterday every other picture had been of Liz draped over Karolina. Or giggling with Karolina. Or kissing Karolina’s cheek.

Before she could second guess herself, Nico shot off a quick text to her mom.

**4:36 pm**

Nico:

I want to go to Alaska.

**4:37 pm**

Mom:

I just emailed you the confirmations.

**4:39 am**

Mom:

So glad you agreed.

Nico stuffed her phone away, not wanting to think about the fact that her mom had obviously anticipated the choice she would make.

***

_“You can’t tell me what I can or can’t do!” Jordan half-shrieked, following the tall blonde out of the coffee shop._

_“I can and I did,” Nic answered over her shoulder, putting more distance between them with each long stride._

_“Now wait just a minute, who the hell do you think you are?” Jordan called after the retreating figure, unable to keep her footing in her high heeled boots on the slick street._

_“I’m the manager of the tree farm, so I think I know a bit more about the business than you do,” Nic said, coming to a stop beside a snowmobile and turning around. “Like the fact that you can’t sell the business the week before Christmas.”_

_Jordan fisted her hands on her hips and glared at the other woman. “Please,” she scoffed, “It was my grandpa’s farm and I can do what I want. I don’t care if it is the week before Christmas, so don’t try that sappy stuff on me.”_

_“You don’t know a damn thing,” Nic growled, leaning forward to meet Jordan’s eye. “Like the fact that no investor is going to buy a farm that just took in all the profits for the year and won’t make barely a dime til next Christmas.”_

_“I -” Jordan stuttered, brought up short._

_“You,” agreed Nic as she sat astride the snowmobile and turned the engine on. “Now, if you ask real nicely, I might even take you up to your grandpa’s cabin. Unless you wanted to walk, more power to you.”_

_Jordan grumbled darkly, which made Nic’s smile widen._

_“Sorry, didn’t catch that.”_

_“I said, will you please give me a ride,” gritted out Jordan._

_“Your chariot awaits,” Nic said, not bothering to hide her grin before patting the seat behind her. “Hold on tight.”_

“And cut!” Sasha yelled and the Nic spell was broken. “Good job ladies, I could really feel the tension this time.”

“Want to go again or wrap for the night,” James asked Sasha, always eager to prove how good he was at his job.

“No, we can call it a night.”

A sigh of relief ran through the assembled cast and crew. It had been a long day.

Karolina was glad to take off the heavy coat. Sure they were filming a Christmas movie, but it was inching closer to 60 instead of the freezing temperatures they were portraying.

She gratefully took her bag and headed into the hotel. With her simple makeup and costumes, the wardrobe supervisor didn’t mind Karolina not immediately returning her clothes. It also helped that her hotel room was about a hundred yards from the wardrobe department.

Karolina waits until she is back in her room, sprawled bonelessly on the bed, before checking a text alert she’d seen between takes earlier. She hadn’t checked it because it was probably just from her mom.

But it wasn’t from her mom. And her stomach does a funny flip when she sees who it is from.

**4:49 pm**

Nico <3:

I miss you too.

Maybe Liz’s plan isn’t so stupid after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so apparently after I posted the last chapter, that cleared my writer’s block. I don’t know why but I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
> 
> Quick run down about this movie (and don’t get all up in arms because I actually cannot stand Hallmark movies so I don’t watch them, especially not the Christmas ones).
> 
> Basically Jordan’s (Liz) grandfather owned the tree farm and died last Christmas. This is the first time she is coming to Alaska to deal with his estate and sell the farm. Nic (Karolina) was the farm manager who has been running the farm for a year basically on her own. And she had worked for the grandfather since she could swing an axe.
> 
> Cue tension because, secretly, Nic wanted to buy the farm but she hasn’t saved nearly enough money. And Jordan is hurting because she did love Christmas until her grandfather died.
> 
> So Jordan gets taken to the grandfather’s cabin via snowmobile by Nic, who takes the opportunity to take the long way to show Jordan how great things are. The snowmobile runs out of gas when they get to the cabin and Nic has to stay the night until someone can bring more gas.
> 
> Basically a whole night of arguments and then thawing of their feelings. Surprise. There’s only one bed! But Nic decides to sleep on the couch. But Jordan can’t sleep in her grandfather’s bed and brings the quilt out to the living room and sleeps on the floor.
> 
> The hokey small town charm gets to Jordan who receives a huge offer for the farm. But when she sees Nic in a restaurant hugging some strange woman, she pulls the ripcord and is ready to go back to Chicago.
> 
> But that was someone from the bank to loan Nic the money to buy the farm and then Jordan runs back to her and happy endings and heart eyes blah blah blah.
> 
> So, I hope you guys are liking the story so far! And don't hate my Hallmark movie idea.
> 
> Also, big thanks, this fic has more hits than all of my other fics combined (which I'm not sure if that means this fic is that good, or my other fics were terrible)


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So okay, I know it has been a long long long time since I've posted, but life you know. I've really enjoyed getting comments, even when I haven't been posting. But here's the long awaited 12th chapter and I'm going to try to keep writing.

**7:15 pm**  
Karolina:  
Miss you more! 

That simple text is enough to have Nico smiling whenever it crosses her mind, even an entire day later. She doesn’t even care that this much smiling is probably tanking her hard won badass reputation.

Nico isn’t oblivious, though she would have to be not to know that her parents are ecstatic. Or as ecstatic as their android bodies can handle. Nico can’t even bring herself to be annoyed at them. 

Amy, at least, has the guts to ask her about it on their Skype call. “Okay what is it?” her sister asks after a few minutes. “You’re acting weird, even for you.”

“Shut up,” Nico tells her sister, but it is halfhearted at best. Amy has always been her most stalwart defender, her partner in crime, and as much a friend as a sister.

“Missing playing kissy face with Karo?” Amy asks, making an exaggerated smooching face at the camera. “Don’t worry, I’ll be home tomorrow for the long weekend, you can tell me all about it.”

That fact makes Nico freeze. She has never missed hanging out with Amy before. It becomes a sort of holiday when her sister comes back into town. “Yeah, about that...”

“Hmmm?” hummed Amy distractedly, passing in and out of view of the camera, obviously finishing up some last minute packing for her trip back to the west coast.

“I’m skipping out on PRIDE’s Labor Day Bonanza.” Nico’s stomach does an odd little flip just by saying that out loud.

The camera shakes a bit as Amy flops on her bed and sighs gustily. “Why? I don’t want to hang out with your weirdo friends by myself! And Karolina won’t be there either? A PRIDE weekend without you or your only normal friend? How could you do this to me, Nico?” Amy groaned with a level of drama that should have found her at Julliard instead of MIT. “And Alex still has a crush on me!”

“Sorry,” Nico told Amy, doing her best to keep the smile from growing on her face. And, really, she isn’t sorry in the least.

“Well what could possibly be more important than me?” Amy said with a huff. But the smile must be showing on Nico’s face because her sister comes to the right conclusion. “You’re going to go visit your girlfriend!”

Nico is at war with herself over that pronouncement. Part of her wants to tell Amy every detail of this farce, because she’s always told Amy everything. But an even stronger rush of something, something that feels like joy and pride mixed into a heady cocktail, overwhelms the desire to tell the truth.

“What did mom have to say about that?” Amy asked with a teasing smile.

“She planned the whole thing,” Nico admitted with a smile and a shrug.

“Hoo boy! You better be hearing wedding bells, because I will bet you my entire future half of Wizard that mom already has a file on the Deanoru wedding!” Amy cackled.

“I’m not taking that bet,” she grumbled, but Nico would never admit that she doesn’t hate the idea.

***

The days had started to blur together, it was a common enough sensation when she was on set that Karolina didn’t mind it. It also meant that things were going well. Not too many problems or delays in production to shake her focus.

Well, unless you counted Liz as a problem. And, depending on the day, Karolina definitely felt comfortable counting Liz as a problem.

Today, unfortunately, is one of those days.

“Liz, can’t you be serious for once?” Karolina asked finally, almost at the end of her patience. Today they had barely gotten anything done. Their most recent take had been messed up by Liz intentionally messing up her lines.

Sure not everything that’s gone wrong can be blamed on Liz. For one thing, it isn’t Liz’s fault that a flock of geese flew through one shot. And it probably isn’t Liz’s fault that the only mistletoe they have on set is brown and withered. But Liz certainly isn’t helping.

“I am serious, seriously more fun than you,” Liz retorted lazily, watching James and Sasha confer a few feet away.

Before Karolina can ask what is so interesting, the production huddle breaks up. She watches as James heads back to the hotel and Karolina can’t help but sit up straighter as Sasha comes over to the cast and crew.

“Okay, we’re basically writing today off, some seriously bad juju is going around,” explained the director with a shrug. “So we’re going to work on a few scenes tomorrow morning, maybe the mistletoe tomorrow night if James can find some fresh mistletoe. But then you can have Sunday and Monday off for the holiday.”

That pronouncement is met with a cheer, no one quite as loud as Liz. The crew rush to get things put away for the rest of the day.

“You want to go hang out in Fairbanks tonight?” Liz asked as they both shed their coats and mittens to bring back to wardrobe. “A couple of the lighting techs said they’re going.”

“Not really,” Karolina said, waving off the invitation. She doesn’t really want to hang out with the lighting techs, most of whom are older and usually found smoking between takes. And on top of that, a headache was starting to pound in her temples.

“Fun sucker,” Liz complained, attempting a Wonder Woman spin to get her coat off. The result is less impressive and more along the lines of drunken stumbling.

“What?”

“Fun. Sucker.” Liz said, enunciating each word. “You suck the fun out of everything.”

“Liz, I’m tired, and I don’t want to go hang out with anyone. I just want to go to my room and not do anything,” Karolina admitted with a tired sigh.

“Fine, Karo-lame-a, but I’ll check again before I leave, just in case you change your mind,” Liz said, skipping off to the hotel too quickly for Karolina to decline the invitation, again.

After retreating to her room, Karolina is able to take a shower and put on sweats, which goes a long way towards making her feel more human. At least until a knock sounds from her door, making Karolina sigh. She was so tired of Liz’s antics.

“Liz, I told you already that I don’t want to go out tonight,” Karolina said, stomping towards the door and swinging it open in frustration. But she deflated almost immediately. It wasn’t Liz on the other side of the door.

“Nico?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, hopefully you liked it. And I'm sorry again that I've been gone for so long. I've been doing a lot of stuff in my condo and my boss has been trying to drum up more business so I stay late a couple days a week and I went on the vacation from HELL with my dad's family in July. And no excuses, but at least some explanation as to my sudden disappearance. But I'm writing again, so hopefully that will continue.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I guess when you start writing again you get momentum or something. Because I have it in spades. And not even a day after I posted the last chapter, here I am again. I was also too excited to hold it back from my adoring fans. Hope you enjoy it.

Nico really hadn’t planned this out well. She hadn’t given the plane tickets her mother handed her more than a cursory look. And now Nico was cursing her lack of foresight.

It was her firm belief that 3:30 am should not be a time that exists, unless you hadn’t yet gone to bed. But here Nico was, being dragged from her comfortable blanket nest by her already disgustingly awake mother.

Nico barely felt functional as she was shoved into a waiting Lyft. And that was when she finally looked at the itinerary that her mom had sent the other day. And damn, maybe Nico had been right when she was 16, and her mom was evil: 8 hours of flight time plus two layovers in Seattle and Anchorage?

“A bit late to change my mind, I guess,” Nico muttered to herself as the Lyft pulled up to the departures terminal at LAX.

***

Nico had spent her long day of travel alternating between sleeping, listening to music, and trying not to stress out about seeing Karolina. She’d given absolutely no thought as to how she was going to get from the airport to wherever Karolina was filming the movie.

But before Nico could worry too much, she saw a sign with her name written in big, block letters ‘NICO MINORU.’

The tall man holding the sign took Nico’s bags without a word when she came up to him. Figuring she didn’t have much of a choice, Nico just followed the man out to the parking lot and a large, black Nemo Leapfrog parked in the first spot.

“Just put your hand on the door handle, we got your biometrics from Wizard this morning,” the man said in a much deeper voice than Nico had been expecting.

With a shrug, Nico reached out and touched the door handle. She stepped back with a small sound of surprise as the SUV hummed to life. The tall man put her bags quickly in the trunk and turned to head back to the terminal.

“Wait,” Nico called after him. She was glad to find that her brain wasn’t entirely zombified from almost thirteen hours of travel. “I don’t know how to get there!”

“The Leapfrog is a self-driving car, let it do all the work,” he called without turning around.

Nico frowned at the gruff treatment but climbed up into the monstrous SUV all the same. She’d never been in a Leapfrog before but at least it looked fairly normal inside. At least until the automated voice started talking to her. “Please buckle your seat belt so that the trip may commence.”

Nico rolled her eyes at the voice, especially because it sounded so much like Victor Stein, Chase’s dad. Victor Stein had invented the entire line of Nemo cars, but to put his own voice in the AI system? Even Nico’s mom wasn’t that egotistical. But she buckled up all the same, since the Leapfrog didn’t seem to want to move until she did.

“Calculating travel duration,” Victor Stein’s voice said from the dashboard. “Estimated travel time two hours and fifteen minutes.”

“What? Two more hours?” Nico complained as the car pulled out of the parking lot.

“Recalculating, estimated travel time two hours and fourteen minutes,” the AI announced, sounding smug to Nico’s ears.

With a glare at the dash, Nico flipped the car off and stuck in her headphones.

Surprisingly, the trip somehow seemed interminably long but also like it was over almost before it had even begun. The sun was setting as the Leapfrog pulled up to a two story, wooden building proudly proclaiming that it was the Denali Grizzly Bear Resort.

“You have arrived at your destination,” the AI told her smugly as the car shut down.

“Thanks, I figured that out,” Nico retorted, hopping out of the car and grabbing her bags from the trunk.

Heading in to the lodge, Nico blinked at the bright lights in the lobby, taking a moment to get her bearings.

“Good evening and welcome to the Denali Grizzly Bear Resort, do you have a reservation?” The voice came from the chipper girl at the front desk who spoke around a smile that showed off every single tooth. Her name badge proudly read: Lydia.

“Uh yeah, it should be under Minoru. Maybe Nico or Tina,” offered Nico as she reached the desk.

Fingers clicked across the keys and the smile dimmed by a few molars. “I’m sorry, I’m not seeing anything in the system, can you spell your name?”

“M-I-N-O-R-U,” Nico spelled out, struggling to keep her tongue in cheek.

“I’m sorry, I’m not finding anything in our system,” Lydia said, still smiling.

“Okay, whatever, can I get a room then?” Nico asked abruptly, feeling off put by the display of teeth in front of her.

“I’m sorry, there aren’t any free rooms available, we’re booked solid until mid-September.” Again this was said with more teeth than strictly necessary.

Nico had a sinking feeling that she knew what had happened. This had her mother’s fingerprints all over it. But before Nico’s fraying temper could be unleashed on the too cheerful girl, their conversation was interrupted.

“Nico? Nico Minoru?”

But before Nico could turn to address the interruption, a firm hand gripped her above the elbow and dragged her away.

It took a long moment for Nico’s brain to catch up to her body, but when it did, her stomach dropped to somewhere around her knees. Nico quickly realized that the pretty girl who had dragged her into an elevator was none other than Liz Larson.

“I’ve heard so much about you,” Liz said with an enthusiastic handshake.

The last thirty seconds had been insanely disconcerting. But when Nico was put on the back foot, her favorite response had always been a snark offensive. “And I’ve heard next to nothing about you,” Nico said in a dangerously saccharine voice that was usually reserved for morons. Or Alex.

Usually, people were put off when Nico used that tone. But all that happened was a dangerous widening of Liz’s smile. “You’re here to see Karolina, right? I’ll take you right to her.”

Nico felt caught up in a human version of a hurricane, and was hustled down the second floor hallway, bags and all.

“Here’s her room, have fun, make wise choices,” Liz said in a rush once they reached the last door on the left. Reaching past Nico, Liz rapped a heavy, patterned knock on the door. In a flash, she was gone as quickly as she’d appeared.

“Liz, I told you already that I don’t want to go out tonight.” Nico heard a voice say through the door. Not just any voice. Karolina’s voice.

The door opened and Nico found herself feeling better than she’d had in days. It was like the relief of a joint being put back into place. Just from the mere sight of Karolina.

But where Liz’s reactions had been lightning fast, Karolina’s seemed slow as molasses in comparison. “Nico?”

“You know, usually you invite someone in when they knock on your door,” Nico said with a smile. And the smile only grew when Karolina launched herself at Nico for a fierce hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I learned that where I have the film crew staying is actually like two hours from Fairbanks airport, so Chapter 8 with Liz and Karolina in the van is a bit wrong. I’m also not going to change it. Suspend your disbelief, immerse yourself in the fic, just pretend that glaring mistake doesn’t exist.
> 
> Also, I have never read the comics, but I was informed that the Leapfrog was shaped, get this, like a frog. So because that’s kinda weird and this is a no powers AU, I’m going to just pretend it is an SUV.
> 
> Quick FYI Lydia is based on a lady I encountered at a hotel. Personally, I should never see all of your teeth when you smile. I am not a dentist and I don’t want to see your teeth.
> 
> And on a final note, I might write some one-shots to flesh out my universe. If you might be interested in that let me know.


End file.
